Addictions are a Cost of War: Marijuana Speech #31

31st speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 5-9-2012; 

Honorable Commissioners:

          Last week, Mr. Ford took offense to my previous speech, saying that I had tarred all Vietnam vets with the same brush, and “We didn’t all come back drug-crazed maniacs.”

          I didn’t say that anyone came back a “drug-crazed maniac”; I said that some men came back with “habits”.  I also confined such remarks to people who were protesting that war, and who had such habits, in talking about the origin of our modern “drug culture.”  Mr. Ford can rest assured that I was not talking about him or people like him.

          I talk about what I know, in this case, men who were drafted to ‘Nam with drug habits and came back with more reason to use them.  In the case of my late husband, Randy Brown, when he was drafted, he had a wife and two sons, and owned a bar in Georgia.  During his first tour, his wife divorced him, kept the kids, and sold the bar.  He stayed for a second tour. 

          Before he owned the bar, he had a roofing business in Kansas; he was a natural entrepreneur.  After he was drafted, he never started another business; all his efforts were focused on get-rich-quick schemes.  Why work hard and save your money when the government can pick you up at any time and take it all away?  Being in the black market, that threat always hung over his head.

          Since the discovery of opiates, addiction to such pain-killers has been a cost of war.  A war on those who take marijuana, opiates and other pain-killers and stimulants does not help our soldiers recover from their experiences overseas; it just makes them the enemy in their own country.

          Many of us are said to be primed for drug addiction by trauma in childhood.  We are not helped with our addictions by being made the enemy by our government.  I was well on my way to being a social alcoholic when I smoked pot in college at 18—in a state where the drinking age is 19.  Your ban on youth drinking didn’t stop me; it just taught me to get drunk.  I was drunk when I tried pot.  Your ban on marijuana didn’t stop me from finding my drug of choice; your ban on harder drugs didn’t stop me from trying them to see what they really do.  All it did was put me outside the rule of law, afraid to report an attempted rape.

          Please help stop the war on us and our habits and support the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act as a first step toward peace and freedom of medicine.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040    rycke@gardener.com

Save Our Children by Legalizing: Marijuana Speech #30

30th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 5-1-2012; 

Honorable Commissioners:

          Last week, I returned to the subject of legalizing marijuana and other drugs.  Commissioner Reedy, you refused a copy of my speech and answered me in Matters from Commissioners.  Thank you for arguing.

          Your remarks boiled down to the fact that you couldn’t understand why I am so concerned about weeds and not about saving our children from drugs.  I didn’t say a word about weeds; I did decry disorder and say that police should be more concerned with catching thieves and getting people to clean up their properties than with keeping us up on the latest teenage slang.

          Why are the cops concerned with teenage slang?  Because the kids are using and selling illegal drugs.  Our laws that supposedly protect children by allowing higher penalties for selling to children and lower penalties for children generally, make children our street dealers.  They can’t even get a job until they are 16; they often start dealing drugs and making big bucks long before that.  They get hooked on easy money and don’t get real jobs.  By the time they are in their mid-twenties, they couldn’t get a job if they wanted to, having no work experience to put on a resume, and they can’t rent a place, because they have no pay stubs.  They are trapped in the black market.

          I have seen this happen to too many kids.  Mothers marched against Prohibition because their kids were getting drunk.   Our kids are getting high and dealing.  We have wasted 3 generations of entrepreneurs on the black market since Nixon declared War on Drugs in the 70’s, pushing up prices faster than inflation. 

          Our black market in marijuana has collapsed in recent years, thanks to medical pot; the only place one can get high prices is out of state or in tolerated dispensaries, selling to people with cards but no grower.  I used to tell people who asked me where to get pot to ask any scruffy kid.  Now the scruffy kids are asking me.

What’s a dealer to do when his drug of choice is no longer profitable?  He moves on to harder drugs.  Soldiers are coming back from Afghanistan hooked on heroin, and getting opiates for their injuries.  Kids are selling to them and each other.  Overdoses are rising among young adults.

          To protect our children from dealing drugs, we need to legalize all drugs, starting with marijuana.  We are collecting signatures to put marijuana under essentially the same regulation as liquor.  Please support the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, now petitioning for the fall ballot.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040    rycke@gardener.com

Drug Culture v. Cop Culture: Marijuana Speech #29

29th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 4-25-2012; 

Honorable Commissioners:

Last week we had a presentation from our local cops through the ladies of our Department of Public Health, titled, “You can’t fight what you don’t know.”  It was about the drug culture in our high school and on our streets: slang; acronyms and logos; clothing lines with such logos.  The one I found most amusing was “SRH: Stoners ‘Reaking Havoc.”  Stoners don’t wreak havoc.

Nonetheless, the cops are exceedingly interested in their culture, clothing, and the places one might stash a pipe, like a bracelet, or a belt buckle.  One wishes that they were as versed in the culture of thieves.

But theft culture isn’t in your face.  Thieves don’t advertise themselves, even to each other.  People are not proud of being thieves.  They don’t celebrate theft in song and clothing; they stay very quiet about their activities.

Thieves we have always had.  Drugs we have always had.  We have not always had drug culture.  That began to really develop as people who used illegal drugs protested the Vietnam War and at the same time rejected the culture of war on their habits, including the habits they brought back from ‘Nam.  Those men were yanked out of their lives and made slave soldiers in a foreign land for no good reason; they had plenty of reason to take opiates and cannabis. 

In thanks for their involuntary service, Nixon declared war on drugs and the people who take them.  Reagan, a few years later, declared zero tolerance.

As those men who went to ‘Nam become grandfathers and great-grandfathers and their sons and grandsons return from Afghanistan with heroin habits, the drug culture has become more bold.  We put pot leaves and only slightly cryptic acronyms and logos on our clothing, to irritate the Powers That Be.  As government tries to do too much and thus neglects the basics of law, which is keeping order, it loses power to harass and jail us for mere habits.

Perhaps police should stop trying to keep up with teenage slang and start getting people to clean up their properties.  Stop making war on substances and start concentrating on catching thieves.  Stop riding around in cars, stopping speeders, and start walking neighbourhoods, talking to people.  It isn’t the distance one covers in a day that counts; it’s the amount of disorder one stops.

I ask this Board to tell our sheriff that you think that marijuana laws should receive the lowest level of enforcement, and support the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, now collecting signatures for the 2012 ballot.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040    rycke@gardener.com

Pot Prices Collapse! Marijuana Speech #28

28th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 5-25-2011 

Dennis Roler this week editorialized in the Daily Courier, “Police and marijuana supporters are duelling over proposed tighter regulations in Salem, but they are missing the point.”

HB 3664 is apparently the last of two dozen such bills introduced this year that is still alive; it would tighten eligibility for cards and give police more access to OMMP records—too much access for Mr. Roler.  He thinks that the “old” program of growing one’s own should be scrapped in favour of state-grown pot sold in state-owned dispensaries, which would bring the collapsing prices for pot in our in-state black market back with a roar.

One might wonder why, after so many years, so many legislators introduced so many bills to do something to tighten up OMMP, and their fellows threw cold water on them.  Wonder no longer; the answer is in those collapsing prices.  A lot of people who have formerly made a living off their risky behavior are hurting now that it is not so risky and a lot of other people have gotten into the act. 

Under OMMP the prices have fluctuated from a low right after harvest, back to high prices before harvest.  A brave grower could hold on to the bulk of his crop until prices recovered and still make good money.  But that price recovery point has gotten later every year, and this year, they have not yet recovered.

Have no doubt that many of these braver growers talk to their legislators, probably posing as rabid anti-pot-people for protective coloration.  But marijuana consumers also talk to their lawmakers, and more legislators appear to support consumers than support black marketers.  They know that tightening up eligibility for medical marijuana and making it more dangerous to grow can only revive the black market and make life harder for consumers of weed.

Now that people are getting used to the idea that they can’t make a lot of money off a few plants anymore and young pot dealers are looking for real jobs, it is time to put pot on the same footing as alcohol and pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.  That will allow a few licensed farmers to make a living off of marijuana, allow any of us to grow our own without license, and drive a stake through the heart of the black market in marijuana.  This Board should ask the legislature to pass it now, and not wait for the People to pass it next year.  There’s still time in this session; they can gut and stuff HB 3664.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040    rycke@gardener.com

Indoor Cultivation Sucks: Marijuana Speech #27

27th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 4-27-2011 

  

An article appeared in the April 15^th Oregonian, “Pot growing gobbles power.”  Eric Mortenson tells us about research by Californian Evan Mills that indicates that indoor marijuana growing uses a full one percent of electricity consumed in the United States. 

I have long held that growing pot indoors is stupid.  It’s a huge full-to-part-sun plant that cannot grow with normal indoor lighting, and it takes a lot of water as well.  1000-watt lights were the standard twenty years ago when I was interested in indoor growing.  The heat from these lamps and the humidity from rapidly transpiring plants has to be vented, which uses still more power.

If it isn’t properly vented, it is hard on a house, as is water that spills on the floor.  It can cause mold and dry rot.  This is a major problem for landlords screening potential tenants; tenants generally don’t tell their landlord that they plan to grow pot in a house, even with a license.

          Cannabis is a big plant for which a pot is never big enough.  Once its roots fill the pot, it cannot get enough water and gets stressed, which encourages indoor pests like whitefly and spider mites.  This encourages the use of insecticides that lower the quality of the product, and can harm consumers.

Indoors is a very expensive, difficult way to grow marijuana.  It makes electricity more expensive for everyone and ruins rentals.  The only reason that anyone grows pot indoors is fear of police and/or thieves.  Medical marijuana has reduced fear of cops, but it has brought the work of thieves into the open; legal growers report thefts. 

A greenhouse is the best option for growing marijuana safely in Southern Oregon: it keeps the crop hidden; gives it lots of the heat and humidity it loves; it can have no floor, allowing roots to spread freely in the soil beneath; and it protects the heavy buds from fall fogs and rain that can cause mold.

When Oregon passes the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, it will end the black market within our state, and the fear of cops and pot thieves with it.  People will grow a few plants in their yards for themselves; licensed growers will grow it in fields, where it belongs, for sale to the state.  Farmers will grow hemp in fields for the world market.   One place you may be sure it will not be grown very much will be indoors, under lights.  Landlords will have one less worry, and we won’t be wasting electricity growing a plant that loves the sun.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

End Nixon’s War on Us: Marijuana Speech #26

26th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 4-13-2011 

I recently received new petition sheets for the Cannabis Tax Act 2012; I will be petitioning for this as well as All-Non-Partisan Elections in Oregon at my weekly protest on Saturdays between noon and 2 PM at 6^th and G in Grants Pass, and before that at the Growers’ Market entrance between 10:00 and 11:30.

But we are in a deep budget hole, and I ask this Board and others to ask our state representatives to pass this measure now because we need it now, to end the violence and corruption of the marijuana black market and stop spending our money on unnecessary, counterproductive evil.

Speaking of counterproductive evil, I’d like to remind my tea party compatriots that the War on Drugs was named such by Richard Nixon, following Johnson’s War on Poverty, around the time he instituted wage and price controls against the inflation he’d unleashed by expansion of the Vietnam War.  He created the Drug Enforcement Administration and turned it into a cabinet-level department, just as he did the Department of Education.  At the point when states were starting to de-emphasize drug-law enforcement because it filled prisons with low-level offenders and got in the way of stopping real crime, he got Congress to give the states money for his war on us and our habits.

People in Mexico are protesting Mexico’s intensified war on drugs, which is tearing their country apart and making it particularly dangerous to work for the Mexican government, as well as to visit or live there.  They should legalize marijuana, license the manufacture of other U.S.-controlled substances, and let US deal with the consequences of our own black market while they profit off it.

Oregon should do a little of the same, by passing the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, and letting the rest of the nation deal with their black markets in pot while we eliminate ours.  Our state can stop spending money enforcing stupid laws and concentrate on real crimes like theft.  Our people can stop spending so much on a weed that we can grow ourselves, and have more money for other products and services.

Now, when newly elected tea-party congressmen are looking for portions of the federal budget to cut, we should remind them that there are whole Cabinet-level departments, like the DEA, committed to unnecessary evil that should never have been created and would not be missed by most of us if they were eliminated.  Frankly, if they can’t get rid of the DEA and the Department of Education, they won’t get far with balancing our budget.

(You may contact your Congressman by calling 202-224-3121; you don’t even have to know his name.  Put this number in your cell phone for easy use; it’s rather satisfying to call and leave a message for your public servant.)

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

Persecuting Us on Borrowed Money: Marijuana Speech #25

25th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, 2-23-2011 

  

On Monday, KDRV Channel 12 told us that House Bill 2982 had been introduced to scrap the OMMP law and re-write it without protections for patients from over-enthusiastic cops, and disqualifying anyone with a controlled substance conviction from having a card.

After Jeopardy, I turned to RVTV Channel 14, and found Jackson County cops selling this bill or something similar, telling us about all the evils of medical marijuana, and saying that more controls on it would somehow stop those evils.  The trouble is, all of the evils that they cited are part of the black market preserved by OMMP: theft of pot; growing indoors in rental housing; selling illegally; selling to minors; minors selling to anyone who wants it.  All of these evils happened before OMMP; they have simply become more open as the legal jeopardy of growing and possession has been reduced for those with a license.  Tightening up the rules won’t stop these evils; it will only make them worse.

Week before last, 50 JOINT Josephine County and Oregon State Police officers spent 400 man hours arresting 7 people and closing down 3 “compassionate care centers” in Grants Pass that had been selling medical pot to OMMP card holders.  OSP Lieutenant Darin Lux said, “We’re trying to enforce the law on the books.  Sometimes it isn’t cheap.  We don’t let that dissuade us from conducting business.”

There are so many laws on the books that police cannot enforce them all equally; they should stick to those that are necessary.  We got along well enough for thousands of years without banning cannabis, which was once mandated to be grown.  Our cops are apparently more interested in arresting pot sellers than thieves, because the feds pay them to arrest pot sellers, skewing the priorities of our police.  The federal government is paying our cops to persecute us with borrowed money; we already owe over $100,000 per citizen on the national debt.  Because of that borrowed subsidy, 50 officers were taken away for a full work day from enforcement of laws against theft, vandalism, and littering, among other evils that they could be stopping.

If we want our cops to stick to the business of necessary evil, this Board and all interested citizens should ask the Legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012, which would put pot under the same kind of rules as liquor in Oregon.  While it would retain the OMMP, it would end the in-state black market in pot with all of its evils.  The evils of Mexican gangs growing weed in remote areas of our state for the national black market won’t stop until the rest of the nation follows, but one state has to start the ball rolling.  Oregon is good at that. 

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

Stop the Nonsense! Marijuana Speech #24

24th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners,1-12-2011 

   

Last Friday night, I heard a report on KDRV Channel 12 (http://kdrv.com/page/201884 ) that two bills had been introduced in the legislature that would require drug testing for public assistance in Oregon. I went looking for bill numbers and more details, and found them on Examiner.com in a piece by Jennifer Alexander (Two bills in Oregon legislature to require drug testing for ... ) . I found summaries but not the full text on the legislature's website.

The first, SB 538 by Senator Bruce Starr of Hillsboro, would require drug testing for all public assistance, including unemployment, not just welfare and food stamps as reported on KDRV, who reported that recipients would have to pay for the tests. It would deny public assistance to anyone who tests positive for a "drug of abuse;" it does not appear to include a treatment option to receive assistance.

The second bill, HB 2995, introduced by Representative Dennis Richardson of Central Point, would apply only to unemployment compensation. It provides that anyone who tests positive would be offered treatment, and would deny those who refuse. I can't tell if it requires one to pay for the test and/or treatment.

Citizens, please call these gentlemen, and remind them that we didn't give Republicans exactly half the House because we love their social policies or the drug war, and that they should stop reminding us why we gave Democrats control in the previous session. Their seats might be safe; other Republicans are not. I don't normally give out phone numbers, but Starr's Salem office number is 503-986-1715; Richardson's is 503-986-1404.

While you are at it, please talk to them about passing the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012, and call up your local representative and senator as well, or write them an e-mail. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses are available on the web; search for the Oregon legislature.

This Act will take the most widely used illegal drug out of the "drug of abuse" category and at the same time save us from the corruption caused by medical marijuana and the black market that it preserves. In the process, it will create an entire new legal industry with legal employment for growers, processors, and sellers. It will stop our teenagers from becoming pot dealers and being ruined for real work. It will allow all adults to grow their own pot and reduce the price of commercial pot drastically, leaving more money in the legal economy. And it will save our law enforcement resources for real criminals like thieves, while eliminating the violence and theft associated with the marijuana black market and the medical privilege.

This Board should also talk to the legislature, by passing A Resolution Regarding Marijuana. At the very least, tell these gentlemen to stop the nonsense, and stop threatening the assistance that keeps our businesses alive in this recession.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

A New Cannabis Tax Act: Marijuana Speech #22

22^nd speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, June 18^th, 2010.  

My apologies to this Board and the County for not bringing this matter up two months ago, when the new petitions came out for the Cannabis Tax Act 2010.  Only about 2 weeks remain in the petitioning season, but it is not too late to do your part.

I am petitioning for the Cannabis Tax Act at the Growers’ Market’s Southwest entrance on 4^th Street every Saturday from about 9:30 to 11:30 AM, and then on 6^th and G at my regular No More Drug War protest from noon to 2 PM.  I also have petitions to repeal the latest gas tax hike, and for All-Non-Partisan Elections in Oregon.

Unlike the previous version of this Act, the state will be selling marijuana in state cannabis stores rather than state liquor stores.  The liquor stores no doubt objected, because where pot is more available, liquor is less used, and having cheap weed in the same stores with heavily taxed liquor would definitely cut into their more lucrative business.

Some people are put off by the “Tax Act” portion of the name, and I have to admit that it is a bit of a misnomer; it actually allows state profit on sale of marijuana.  Rather than a set percentage of the price or so much per ounce, the state will be making whatever profit it can off the sale of its marijuana in state cannabis stores while competing with the relatively cheap homegrown that anyone over 21 will be able to grow for personal use.  After a few years, the state may find that it cannot compete with homegrown pot, any more than it can compete in the tomato market, and will close the state cannabis stores and allow sale of marijuana in other stores, as it does with cigarettes.

Do you want teenagers to stop being our pot dealers and get their weed from adults, rather than vice-versa?   Then you should support this Act.  Do you want to stop sick people from getting rich off the rest of us with their present medical privilege?  Then you should support this Act.  Do you want the police to concentrate on catching thieves, rather than weeding the forest and busting farmers?  Then you should support this Act.  Do you want more money freed from the black market and Mexican gangs and spent in legitimate stores, lifting the entire economy?  Then you should support this Act. 

There is now a measure heading to the ballot which would allow cannabis dispensaries; it would only continue the problematic system of medical privilege that creates so much corruption.  I ask this Board to ask the legislature to pass the 2010 Cannabis Tax Act, or to put it on the ballot, so we can at least have a better choice in November.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

The People Are Way Ahead Of You: Marijuana Speech #21

21 ^st speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, December 30, 2009.    

Another reason you should pass A Resolution Regarding Marijuana, urging the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, is that the people are way ahead of you on this issue.  In a democracy, it is proper that the people lead and their public servants follow, but the public servants really shouldn’t fall too far behind public opinion.

When it comes to marijuana, the people have had to drag their public servants along kicking and screaming.  In both Arizona and Oregon, medical marijuana had to be passed twice before the politicians stopped calling the voters idiots while trying to gut their voter-passed initiatives. 

In this state, there are politicians who are still trying to go backwards on this issue, like Rep. Ron Maurer, who wants to put all pot growing on state-owned farms and supply pharmacies through them, saying that pot will then be as well controlled as other prescription drugs—as though prescription drugs are well controlled.

But Rafael Caso, our county’s main drug crime prosecutor says, "Either [marijuana] needs to be legalized or make it completely illegal. Where it is now, it creates litigation."  (Apparently he has no problem with laws that create persecution.)  This medical privilege does not work for law enforcement; it’s no fun enforcing rules that don’t work for anyone.

Still, others, notable Voter Power and marijuana clinics, are pushing the Regulated Medical Marijuana Supply System, which would retain the current problematic system of medical privilege and its thriving black market, and tack on state-licensed growers and special medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, on the other hand, would repeal all state laws regarding marijuana, including the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, and replace them with state-licensed growers and processors, who would sell to the renamed Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Control Commission, which would sell graded weed to pharmacies at cost and in state liquor stores at whatever price the legal market could bear.  This would be a good deal less than the black market price, because the OCTA would also allow growing for personal use, just as we do with liquor production.    No special system of dispensaries would be needed, and Oregon’s domestic black market would be gone.

We don’t need tweaks to the current problematic medical privilege, and we don’t need to take giant steps backward.  As James Bowman said in the Courier, “Cannabis is like a wrongly-convicted felon that has been in prison for 40 years and needs to be set free.”  This Act is more like parole in a half-way house, but please help free God’s green herb, and pass this Resolution, asking the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

Support Your Local Sheriff: Marijuana Speech #20

20 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, November 25, 2009.  

Another reason you should pass A Resolution Regarding Marijuana, urging the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, is that this is a fast-moving issue, and you ought to give the legislature your support for a better idea before they do something that will only prolong our troubles with weed.

The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act was 2008’s Measure 28, but it never made the ballot, because hardly anyone, including me, bothered to read it; it was a presidential election year.  The legislature is currently considering this year’s Measure 28, which is not half so ambitious; it would only tweak our medical marijuana system, retaining the medical privilege that is so problematic for law enforcement, and unjust for the rest of us.

Last Thursday, an AP article appeared in the Oregonian, headlined, “Former US Attorney favors drug law review.”  John McKay, former U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, has joined the chorus of ex-cops, former prosecutors, retired judges, and even some currently office-holding officials like Sheriff Richard Mack and Congressman Ron Paul, calling for major changes in our drug laws, particularly regarding marijuana.

McKay appeared at a recent panel discussion of drug laws, where he and others decried the lack of courage on the part of legislators and other elected officials, who are afraid of being labeled “soft on crime” if they favor repealing “stupid laws,” as McKay called the laws banning cannabis.  He said that pot should be treated a lot more like liquor, and a lot less like heroin and meth.

Not all of our local elected officials are cowards on this issue.  At last Tuesday’s meeting of the John Birch Society, our Sheriff, Gil Gilbertson, told us, “Marijuana should be treated just like liquor.”  The crowd, a room full of our local constitutional conservatives, applauded loudly.

Our elected officials should stop being afraid of being labeled “soft-on-crime” and start fearing being called “stupid-on-crime.”  The people have come to realize that there is only so much money available for law enforcement, and that laws against personal habits interfere with enforcing laws against real crime—especially when the state and feds subsidize the enforcement of stupid laws, but not of real laws against theft and assault.

We are soon going to have to pay for our own law enforcement in this county.  It would be easier to get the voters to give the Sheriff and DA money if they had fewer stupid laws to distract them from the business of fighting real crime.  Please ask the legislature to start by passing the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, so our many pot users and growers can sleep easier at night, knowing that the cops are not going after them.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

Too Soon For Full Freedom to Grow: Marijuana Speech #19

19 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, November 10, 2009.    

Another reason you should pass A Resolution Regarding Marijuana, urging the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is:

“WHEREAS the marijuana black markets in neighboring states make it unwise for Oregon to immediately recognize the rights of Oregon citizens to freely grow and sell marijuana without license or limits;”

I have stated repeatedly that we all have a right to use any of God’s green herbs, recognized in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.  So why would it be unwise to fully recognize this right immediately?

The right to use cannabis was not violated prior to the 20^th Century.  But now we have had over 70 years of Cannabis prohibition, and the development of high black-market prices for it.  Unlike other banned medicines, it can be grown by anyone with basic gardening knowledge.  In the last decade, since Oregon started licensing people to grow medical marijuana, the number of growers with licenses has exploded.

This medical privilege creates a stumbling block for people with ordinary greed, thrift, and love of their neighbors.  The amount of plants that have to be allowed to allow for low yields leaves people with high-yielding plants with much more than they are legally allowed to keep.  They cannot legally sell it, and few can stand to give away or destroy a valuable commodity, so many sell it illegally. 

Since there are so many licensed growers in Oregon, a lot of this surplus gets sent out of state to where prices are high and supplies are low.  So pot smokers in this state who aren’t licensed to grow are finding it harder to find their weed this year.  I hear of growers sending all of their surplus weed out of state and then asking the people who normally would buy from them for more.  So unlike last year, prices have not dropped at harvest. 

The black market in neighboring states therefore makes it problematic for them if we grow and sell as much cannabis as we could.  Even our medical marijuana licensing system creates problems here and in other states, because the medical privilege creates too much opportunity for illicit profit at the expense of those who are not privileged.

If the legislature would pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, marijuana would be grown by license for the state to distribute, and grown without license, though with limits, for personal use, exactly the same way we treat alcohol.  Fewer and larger licensed growers would be easier to control; home growing would allow all adults to get their share.

There will still be a problem with pot being sent out of state; there will be as long as a black market exists elsewhere.  Therefore, we must urge other states to follow our lead.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

Feds Have No Power Over Medicine: Marijuana Speech #18

18 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, October 14, 2009.    

Another reason that you should ask the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is: “WHEREAS federal laws regarding marijuana and other drugs violate the 10^th Amendment, usurping powers reserved to the states and the people;”

The 10^th Amendment of the United States Constitution states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

The first thing it says is, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution…”  This tells us first that powers are delegated to the United States by the people.  These powers do not come from the States, because the Constitution begins, “We the People of the United States…”  It is the people who established this Constitution because, as the Declaration of Independence tells us, governments derive “their just powers from the consent of the governed.” 

Oregon’s Constitution enshrines this principle in Article 1, section 1: “We declare that all men, when they form a social compact are equal in right: that all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority…” 

The gist of the Tenth amendment is that the Federal government has no powers that are not listed in the Constitution; any powers not listed belong to the states, or to the people from whom all power flows. 

There is nothing in the United States Constitution that gives the federal government any power over the practice of medicine.  It can be argued that the First Amendment’s religious freedom clauses forbid any such role.  Yet Congress and federal regulatory agencies have presumed to tell the people what we can or can’t use for medicine! 

It’s gotten to the point that Congress is about to complete the federal government’s takeover of the practice of medicine in this country.  They want to tell health insurance companies who to cover and what to cover, which is to say, everyone and everything.  In return, they want to force every one of us to buy those overpriced, unsustainable insurance policies.  And some want to include a government insurance option, to use tax subsidies to unfairly compete with the insurance companies in their forced coverage by armed robbery. 

In the end, we will all be paying for each other’s poor health, and telling each other what to eat and not to eat and how to exercise and sleep.  We’ll be putting people in jail for not taking good enough care of themselves, or for refusing to pay for the poor choices of others.  This is what comes of letting governments tell people what they can or can’t take as medicine.

We all have power; we delegate some of it to governments.  I reserve all my power over my body and what I put in it to me.  That is part of my freedom of religion.  The Legislature of the State of Oregon should be as jealous of its power as I am, and stop the United States from usurping powers that it has not been delegated, by passing the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act in defiance of the federal ban on cannabis.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

Treat Pot Like Liquor: Marijuana Speech #17

17 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, September 30, 2009.    

Another reason that you should ask the legislature to pass the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is: “WHEREAS there is no reason to treat marijuana and its users any more harshly than alcohol and its users;”

Actually, there are a lot of reasons that people should be given more freedom to buy and use this herb than people have to buy and use alcohol, and many reasons that the state should not so strictly control access to alcohol.  But government moves best when it moves slowly regarding any non-emergency, and for now it would be good just to put these two most-widely-used substances on an equal footing in state liquor stores.

Alcohol is implicated in many traffic accidents; the same cannot be said for marijuana.  In fact, the National Transportation Safety Board has found that drivers under the influence of cannabis, unlike drunk drivers, know precisely how impaired they are and compensate by driving a little more slowly and cautiously than when they are straight.  This extends, among people who are not used to it, to refusing to drive if they feel that they are too impaired.  Chronic users like me are not impaired by cannabis.

Alcohol is not only implicated in many car accidents; it is also involved in many other kinds of accidents, for the same reason: feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof.  Alcohol depresses reflexes and balance, and throws caution to the winds.  The drunk does not know how impaired his reflexes, balance, and judgment are.  Cannabis users are under no such illusion.  People don’t drown or fall off of cliffs because they are stoned.

Studies have also shown that, where cannabis is more available, alcohol is less used, especially among the young.  This can result in fewer drunk driving and other accidental deaths among the young. 

Even though both substances would be sold in liquor stores where only those over 21 could buy it, since it is easier to grow pot than to make liquor, pot will be more available outside of liquor stores, and youth will have more access to weed than liquor—at a far lower price than now for either, which is important. 

Right now, teens are our pot dealers, but weed is expensive, while alcohol is relatively cheap, though somewhat harder to get.  If the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is passed, cannabis will be a lot cheaper and little harder to get, but not as hard to get as alcohol, since many people will grow it and will have some to give away. 

Since it will be far cheaper than it is now, there will be little profit in stealing it, while the risk will be about the same as it is now—substantial.  We currently have a problem with people stealing medical marijuana.  Theft of weed should drop to almost nothing when every adult is free to grow his own, and most kids will know someone who is growing it. 

Our current situation, with a few licensed, limited growers who cannot legally sell weed and a lot of people who are willing to pay high prices for it, is a stumbling block for the dishonest.  There are plenty of other temptations to evil; this one can be removed.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

Medicines, Not Poisons, Are Banned: Marijuana Speech #16

16 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, September 16, 2009.   

Last week, in response to my response to Commissioner Cassanelli regarding a Resolution Regarding Marijuana, Barbara Gonzales pointed out that, although God gave us every green herb bearing seed for food, some plants are poisonous and may rightly be forbidden.

Does Barbara believe that God did not know that some plants are poisonous?  God knows all, so they say.  God left it up to each of us to figure out what is poisonous and what is not, and to figure out how good or bad various plants are. 

In Chapter 2 of Genesis, the Lord God created Adam and Eve and forbade the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  But he did so in such a way that one was bound to try it out and get them kicked out of the garden he had built, so he could block them from the tree of life, which he did not forbid or even mention.  Chapter 2 is about the God of Government, and is an allegory on how governments set up prohibitions for their own purposes, purposely to be broken, so they can gain power from their citizen’s guilt.

The Lord God said that, if they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, in that day they would surely die.  But the serpent told Eve the truth; that she would not die, but would gain knowledge.  Which she did; she and Adam found out that they were naked, which is to say, defenseless, and subject to the wrath of the Lord.

And so it is today.  Poisonous plants are not forbidden; any fool may legally poison himself with poison sumac, poison hemlock, or datura.  But when I tried the forbidden herb cannabis when I was drunk over 30 years ago, I found that it was a lot less intoxicating than alcohol, and much better suited to my system.

None of the currently forbidden medicines are poisonous; they are effective pain killers and/or stimulants.  One is not even psychoactive or even mildly toxic; it is a vitamin, B17, called Laetrile in its refined form.  It was banned in the 1950’s after a series of studies and one report purported to show, not that it was not safe, but that it was not effective against cancer.  The people who use it beg to differ.

Laetrile was banned because people might use it instead of resorting to toxic cancer treatments pushed by the American Medical Association.  Which many do anyways, with better outcomes.  See the movie online, World Without Cancer.  Or read the book.

Governments create bans and black markets for their own purposes, one of which is the power to imprison people and make them slaves.  The 13^th Amendment to the Constitution forbids slavery “except as a punishment for crime.”  It is no coincidence that the number and absurdity of our laws increased greatly after it was passed.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

All Black Markets Are Bad: Marijuana Speech #15

15 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, September 9, 2009.    

Last week, in her remarks at the end of the meeting, Commissioner Cassanelli pointed out that the same “justifications” that I have given for repealing marijuana laws, could equally apply to opium poppies and heroin.  I would also add that coca and cocaine are equally one of “God’s green herbs bearing seed,” given to all mankind for our use.

Repeal of a law does not have to be justified; the law, the use of force, has to be justified.  In arguing against the repeal of a law, it is not an argument to say that another, similar law is equally unjust.  It is an argument for further repeal. 

If this be a slippery slope, it is a slippery slope to justice, which is devoutly to be wished.  But I’ve never found the road to justice to be slick or easy.  I doubt that legalizing marijuana will quickly lead to legal heroin or cocaine.

But would this be a bad thing?  Heroin is the finest, most natural painkiller ever discovered by mankind.  They had to ban it to be able sell us stuff like aspirin.  My late husband could have used it when he was dying of cancer.   In Arizona, he could have gotten a doctor’s permission to use it, but their law only allows use, not sales, so he would have had to pay black-market prices for a drug of unknown purity, if he could find it.

Commissioner Cassanelli said that she wouldn’t want to see the entire county addicted to opium.  Would that happen?  Were all Americans, or even a large percentage of the population, addicted to opium, heroin, or cocaine before the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1916?  Apparently not, or it never would have been passed.  Not even alcohol, the most widely used addictive narcotic, was widely used enough to prevent Prohibition.  Its ending did not create a nation of drunks.

Addicts can get all the heroin they want; doctors and their patients can’t get it, and can’t trust black-market dope.   Afghan farmers grow poppies and make heroin for the world market and fund their warlords and insurgents.  We could make it here and cut off that funding if it were legal.

No matter how pernicious a substance is, a black market in that substance is worse.  Nothing spreads the use of a medicine like a legion of addicted salesmen on the streets.  An addicted drug salesman has to sell his particular drug to get the money for more; a pharmacist has to sell drugs, but not any particular drug; he has thousands to choose from.

Commissioner Ellis said that we’ve gone from “one nation under God” to “one nation under government.”   We moved away from God and bowed to government when we started banning God’s green herbs.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

More Money in Our County: Marijuana Speech #14

14 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, September 2, 2009.  

Another finding in A Resolution Regarding Marijuana is:

“WHEREAS Josephine County’s farmers could make money growing marijuana and hemp and making hemp products on their own land;”

Apparently, the Oregon legislature has already seen the light regarding hemp, having legalized the growing of industrial hemp earlier this summer.  Soon afterwards, we heard from a medical marijuana organization, pointing out that Oregon may not have the best climate for growing hemp.  Certainly, we could not compete with states that are either hotter or more humid; where we have the heat, we don’t have the humidity; where we have the moisture, we don’t have the heat.  The Midwest and Southeast are much better climates for both marijuana and industrial hemp. 

Where Oregon has made a lot of money and could continue to do so, is in the growing of medical-grade marijuana for the western markets, in particular for our own smokers.  We may not have the perfect climate, but we have a good enough climate, and the expertise.  Southern Oregon NORML is undoubtedly worried about the impact of fields of industrial hemp pollen on medical marijuana crop quality; medical and black-market growers pull all the male plants to prevent pollination and loss of quality; hemp growers have no reason to do so.

Which brings us to the next reason, “WHEREAS many of Josephine County’s marijuana users could grow their own marijuana, freeing up their money to spend on other products and services;”

As I pointed out in an earlier speech, I spend about $300 per month on marijuana.  That’s money that, if I was growing my own, I could spend on other products and services, raising the income of legitimate businessmen instead of black market suppliers.  Multiply that by the number of pot smokers in this county, minus the people who are already licensed to grow their own, and you have an engine of economic development, just by allowing people to grow one of God’s green herbs that he gave us all for our use.

Add to that the amount that we spend on arresting people and tearing out their plants, jailing them, trying them, and keeping them in prison or on probation, for growing a plant God gave us.  That is money that could be spent investigating thefts and punishing thieves. 

Our sheriff presently has 1 detective assigned to narcotics, and none assigned to investigate thefts.  This would remove the most commonly used “narcotic” from his list, and allow him to concentrate on meth labs.  If, as he has said, these meth makers and sellers are involved in a lot of theft, he could catch more of them perhaps more easily by investigating thefts.  At least then, he’d catch the ones who steal.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

A Weed Grows In Our Forests: Marijuana Speech #13

13 ^th speech in this series to the Josephine County Commissioners, August 26, 2009.  Posted on ILoveGrantsPass.com.  Video is available at http://www.co.josephine.or.us/Page.asp?NavID=893  

The next reason for passing A Resolution Regarding Marijuana is:

“WHEREAS great quantities of illicit marijuana are being grown in our national forests;”

A weed is a plant growing where it is not wanted.  Marijuana has been called the evil weed because, where the authorities find it, they tear it out.  In the news recently, as happens this time every year, we hear of thousands of pot plants being uprooted and hauled out of the forests at great expense because they are growing where the owner— the federal government or sometimes a private large landowner—doesn’t want them.

These huge grows are generally planted and tended by illegal immigrants brought in by Mexican crime cartels.   I suspect that they are the source of some of the best commercial weed available.

I cannot say that passing the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act will have any immediate effect on the growing of illegal weed in remote forest lands.  Most of it is probably shipped out of this state, where medical marijuana plays hob with black market prices, especially right after harvest, when risk-averse licensed medical growers are trying to get rid of their excess as soon as possible.  The only thing that will stop the weed from being purposely grown in our forests is full legalization throughout the nation.  But it is a good first step in that direction.

This is the 13^th speech in this series supporting A Resolution Regarding Marijuana.  We have yet to hear any reasons from any opposition why you should not pass it.  We have heard from one person who appeared to be concerned about respect for the law, when I admitted to ongoing felonies in buying marijuana, and about the example that I set for children by such admissions.  We have not heard any reasons why you should support the present law that you do not enforce against me, any reasons why you should not ask the legislature to repeal it, or any reasons why you should not ask the legislature to replace such laws with the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act.

Supposedly, this is a controversial issue.  Regarding controversial issues, one generally has no problem getting an argument in this meeting.  I am waiting for an argument to answer, so we can have a debate.

There must be some opposition out there.  Perhaps they don’t think that you will take me seriously—but an unopposed 13-speech series is pretty serious.   Perhaps they don’t pay attention to what goes on in your meetings—in which case, they deserve to be surprised by whatever you pass.  Or perhaps my arguments are unassailable and unanswerable.

I call on the opposition to my proposal to put up or continue to shut up.  If they will not put forth an argument against it, I call on this Board to pass this Resolution.